I use BoArduino for my Arduino work because I prefer breadboards. I do however have a WickedProto Shield adapter for the odd occasion I want to play with "standard" Arduino shields, and it has always worked great in the past. Last weekend I picked up an Ethernet Shield from Radio Shack (want to support their new Arduino efforts) and I'm having zero luck getting it going.

Running the DHCP Chat Server example sketch in Arduino 1.0, the serial monitor shows it waiting indefinitely for a DHCP address (network is tested and valid). If I comment out the DHCP initialization and use static parameters, Ethernet.localIP() always returns 0.0.0.0.

Ethernet.begin(mac, ip); //Ethernet.begin(mac, ip, gateway, subnet); Serial.begin(9600); Serial.println("Better client test 12/01/11"); // so I can keep track of what is loaded Serial.println("Send an e in serial monitor to test"); // what to do to test}

Which is as expected as Ethernet.begin is failing to initiate the shield. This is why Ethernet.localIP is returning 0.0.0.0 in my code. Now the question is, is this because the Ethernet Shield is somehow incompatible with BoArduino or is this shield defective...

I've now tested this thing on multiple networks and even tried crossover cables direct to my laptop. Even sniffed the traffic and absolutely nothing comes out of the Ethernet Shield when attempting DHCP so I'm thinking its a bum unit. Guess I'll swap it out at RS.

I'm not using an UNO, but no the Ethernet Shield is never seen by the network and does not appear in the ARP table. Using code which would initiate a DHCP request hangs at Ethernet.begin(mac) indefinitely. Statically assigned IP via Ethernet.begin(mac, ip, gateway, subnet) does complete but Ethernet.localIP() always returns 0.0.0.0 and the Shield still never appears in ARP.

I use BoArduino for my Arduino work because I prefer breadboards. I do however have a WickedProto Shield adapter for the odd occasion I want to play with "standard" Arduino shields, and it has always worked great in the past.

After rereading the above, I suspect that is where your problem is and not the ethernet shield from RS.

Google forum search: Use Google Advanced Search and use Http://forum.arduino.cc/index in the "site or domain:" box.

While I'm new to this forum, and it's easy to assume the newbie doesn't know much, I can assure you this isn't my first time around the workbench. Even won some design awards many moons ago in Nuts and Volts...

I was hoping someone had some advice on validating proper Ethernet Shield operation at the SPI level as the Arduino Ethernet library, even in 1.0, does a very poor job of providing feedback on what's happening inside the w5100. This may be beyond the scope of the regulars here though, I'm guessing. I'll pop over to adafruit's board and see if anyone there has messed with the 'duino Ethernet Shield.